Cambodian villagers speak out against corruption

Villagers address a panel of lawmakers at CCHR’s land forum in Samuth Krom village, Seda commune, in Ratanakkiri province’s Lum Phat district yesterday. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Bridget Di Certo and Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

In Lum Phat district’s Seda commune, the message from villagers attending yesterday’s Cambodian Center for Human Rights’ land forum was clear: We’ve been duped.

The mixed Khmer and ethnic minority villagers said they were coerced into accepting the phenomenally low price of US$150 per hectare of land from the DM Group and other private plantation companies and were forced to thumb-print documents leaving them with effectively no legal recourse – and no land – plunging the semi-nomadic community into even greater poverty and uncertainty.

Kuch Moly, a Funcinpec lawmaker who sat on the three-person panel at the forum alongside Seda commune chief Thom Phain, rebuked villagers for filing complaints when they have already accepted compensation.

He and fellow lawmaker Ou Chanrith, from the opposition Human Rights Party who also sat on the panel, were handed a complaint thumbprinted by 29 families whose houses had been burned to the ground by the DM Group in June of last year.

Villagers take hostages

Five employees of Jing Zhong Ri Cambodia Co Ltd tied up yesterday in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district after a dispute with local residents. (Ratha Visal/Phnom Penh Post)

Thursday, 23 February 2012
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

“The villagers just want to protect their land, it is not illegal”

The clearing of land for a Ratanakkiri rubber plantation had been frozen after more than 300 Tumpoun ethnic minority villagers captured a quartet of company security guards and another staffer, tied them up and held them hostage on Tuesday, company officials said yesterday.

Jing Zhong Ri Cambodia Co Ltd was granted a 70-year, 9,000-hectare “sustainable use zone” concession in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district in May and recently began clearing the area.

Tumpoun villagers claim the company has no right to bulldoze their farmland.

On Tuesday morning, they launched an offensive against JZR company property, tearing apart a bulldozer and another vehicle before advancing towards the company’s environmental office, Lumphat police chief Suoy Phay told the Post.

Villagers cut off by concession

Armed military police prevent a reporter from the Post and two Adhoc staff members speaking to residents of Pean Kay village, in Koh Kong province, on Friday. More than 1,000 families are affected by a 36,000-hectare land concession granted to a Chinese company. Photo by: May Titthara

Tuesday, 06 December 2011
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Access to Preak Smach village is monitored by the military. At a checkpoint on the road through Kiri Sakor district, armed officers interrogate those attempting to enter the area. After an hour of often hostile questioning last Friday, an investigator from rights group Adhoc was refused access.

Residents of a nearby village, however, pointed to a trail through the forest that was wide enough for a motorbike. It led to the coast and a boat to the village on Koh Sdech where families who say they have been living on the island since 1983 are facing eviction to make way for a tourism development that will cost, according to Chinese media reports, US$3.6 billion.

The tranquil scenery, expansive beaches and calm sea belied the anxiety that pervaded the village, as well as a rising defiance.

“If this had happened in the past, I would join the Khmer Rouge to protect my land,” said Sim Navy, adding that she was furious with the government for granting the land she lives on to a Chinese company.

Small-scale farmers increasingly at risk from 'global land grabbing'

Research from countries such as Cambodia show that the social and environmental costs of ‘land grab’ deals are rarely taken into account. Photograph: Robyn Mcdowell/AP

While investment is critical for agriculture, the rush into long-term land leases is a dramatic step with many risks and substantial social and environmental costs

Friday 15 April 2011
Jun Borras, Ian Scoones and David Hughes
The Guardian (UK)

New research on the global rush for agricultural land shows small-scale farmers increasingly at risk as land deals ignore local tenure rights.

Fresh evidence from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union was presented last week at an international conference on "global land grabbing" convened by the Land Deal Politics Initiative and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium at the University of Sussex, where researchers revealed documentation of land deals amounting to over 80m hectares – almost twice what was previously estimated.

The stakes are high for displaced small farmers, women and children, as well as national governments where land is being leased in large amounts. With land deals accelerating, particularly in Africa, it is essential that the fine print of such deals is subject to careful scrutiny, and that transparent and accountable governance mechanisms are put in place. And securing land rights is central to ensuring equitable agricultural development.

Groups Warn of Abuse Increases in Land, Resource Deals

Ly Yong Phat (aka Thai citizen Pat Supapa (The Nation)

Villagers in the provinces of Koh Kong and Kampong Speu have alleged that sugar plantations operated by Ly Yong Phat have pushed them off their land.

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

Phnom Penh Wednesday, 20 October 2010

“Now we have moved the houses to a near area, and we lost villages and the land, the farming fields and our ethnic culture.”

Government land concessions and the exploitation of natural resources are creating an increasing number of rights violations and other pressures on villagers, a group of local non-governmental organizations said Wednesday.

“Land concessions are affecting Cambodian villages and communities in some provinces,” said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, speaking at a national conference for advocacy in Phnom Penh.

The number of land issues has increased over the last nine months, he said, leading to an increase in rights abuses.

An Adhoc study of land issues in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kampong Speu, Koh Kong, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Stung Treng and Banteay Meanchey found 272 ongoing land disputes. As a result, it found 128 people had been arrested and more than 100 had evaded detention. Fifty-five people remain in custody, facing criminal charges related to protests in the disputes.

Wednesday's conference brought together hundreds from across Cambodia, some of whom were representatives of villages feeling the strain of land concessions.

“Now there are 31 families with land issues with the Heng Houy [sugar plantation],” Phoa Ngeng, a resident of Chi Kar Krom commune of Koh Kong province's Sre Ambel district, said.

People there live in fear, she said, with at least one or two people summoned to provincial court every day. She called on the national government to stop providing land concessions to private companies to prevent rights violations.

Heng Houy, the head of the company, has said he obtained the concession legally and had purchased land legitimately from villagers.

Ongoing disputes create the loss of farmland for villagers and other livelihoods, villagers at the conference said. Meanwhile, minority villagers have been pushed from homes and forests that are an important part of their culture.

Meanwhile, exploitation of resources, including for hydropower, have increased the burdens on some villagers.

For example, the Srepok and Yali hydropower dams in Vietnam have created poor living conditions for people downstream.

Kong Chanty, a resident of Stung Treng province's Sesan district, said Wednesday that the dams have pushed more than 1,000 families from 18 villagers from their homeland.

“Now we have moved the houses to a near area, and we lost villages and the land, the farming fields and our ethnic culture,” he said.

"Even if you live on these lands for 100 years long, we will still take [your land] away from you...": The land-grabbing Long Sreng Co.

56 families could face food shortage because their lands are given away as concession to a company by Hun Xen’s gov’t

12 June 2010
By Or Phearith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Oss Srè
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Villagers from O’Pram Pi village, Prek Kak commune, Kampong Cham province, indicated on 12 June that 56 families will face food shortage next year if they can grow crops on their lands as they used to do every year.

The villagers claimed that their lands were handed to them by their ancestors and they used to live on these lands, but they don’t know why the government is turning their lands to a private company without informing them before hand.

An elderly woman said that the villagers could face hunger if the government does not help resolve this case on time for the upcoming rainy season.

The villagers added that the Long Sreng Co., aka Heng Long Co., organized a meeting on 09 May where they told the villagers: “Even if you live on these lands for 100 years long, we will still take them away from you as long as your lands are included in the map the government gave to us legally, therefore, no authority will help and get involved in this case.”

On 10 June, the 56 families traveled to provincial office to turn in their protest petition, asking for an intervention so that the 8.54-hectare land occupied by their village and their 21.6-hectare of rice fields be returned to them so that they can grow crops. There, Yin Bun Tith, a provincial official made an arrangement for the villagers to return home for now. However, as of today, he still had not confirmed how he will proceed with the intervention, claiming that he is too busy with a relative’s funeral.

The villagers indicated that the Long Sreng Co. wants to chase them away and send them to live in a new area by giving them very minor compensation. A representative of the Long Sreng Co. indicated that this is a case of housing swap and the government is in charge of this issue, the company is merely providing some additional incentive for soothing the spirit of the villagers.

The representative of the Long Sreng Co. said that his company used to resolve such problems with success in several places already, so much so that the Council of Ministers issued a letter to all other rubber plantation companies to take the same steps as it did.

Aid donors urged to get tough on Cambodia over land

Tue Jun 1, 2010
Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian rights groups and farmers urged foreign donors on Tuesday to press the government to suspend land concessions to investors and use fair and lawful means to settle disputes.

Non-governmental organisations and landless farmers have accused Cambodia's government of awarding a wave of concessions to foreign and local firms before evicting villagers from their land without negotiation or adequate compensation.

International donors have played a major role in the development of the impoverished country's economy, although the government has regularly admonished donors critical of its policies and accused them of interference.

On Monday Cambodia's parliament approved a five-year plan to achieve GDP growth of 6 percent annually, a figure that would require donors to provide $6 billion of foreign aid.

Sar Sok, a villager embroiled in a land dispute with a sugar company in Kompong Speu province, 48 km (30 miles) west of the capital Phnom Penh, asked donors to use their influence to force the government to change its approach.

"I ask donors to put pressure on the government on issues of human rights violations, forced evictions and land grabbing," Sar Sok said, a day ahead of an international donors' meeting in Phnom Penh.

In its drive to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants, farms and plantations for sugar, rice and rubber.

FORCED OFF THE LAND

However, rights groups say that has come at the expense of its people, with a sharp rise in the number of forced evictions by state officials profiting from the sale and leasing of farmland and urban real estate to foreign and local companies.

Cambodia's government has denied the allegations, claiming evictions are lawful and compensation is more than adequate.

Many Cambodians struggle to prove their ownership of land since legal documents were often lost or destroyed during decades of civil war.

Chhit Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum on Cambodia, said donors would be presented with a list of recommendations on what to demand from the Cambodian government before agreeing to future development aid.

He said existing land concessions should be suspended pending a review, while the government should halt the arrest of locals involved in land disputes and commit to a transparent and legal process to ensure cases are dealt with fairly.

"Donors have given a lot of money for land reform but there are still land evictions," Chhit Sam Ath said. "We won't stay calm with donors who give money and stay quiet while villagers are crying."

(Editing by Martin Petty)

Farmers protest loss of dam

Villagers in Kampong Thom province gather Tuesday morning to protest the dismantling of a Khmer Rouge-era dam in Santuk district. (Photo supplied)

Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

MORE than 500 people from Kampong Thom province’s Santuk district on Tuesday protested the dismantling of a Khmer Rouge-era irrigation project that they say has led to the flooding of their farmland.

Villagers say the dam, when it functioned, had been used to flush water in and out of farmland belonging to residents of Santuk’s Boeung Lvea, Ti Pou, Kraya and Kampong Thma communes. Government officials dismantled it last year to build a reservoir.

“My land has been totally flooded – I can’t plant rice anymore,” said Khaul Choeun, who claimed to own 2 hectares of flooded land.

In a meeting at Santuk’s Boeung Lvea pagoda, Santuk district governor Pich Sophea told villagers that the government would not be paying compensation to families affected by the flooding because they had planted their rice on state land.

“This is the government’s project to renovate the irrigation system,” Pich Sothea said, adding that the newly built reservoir provided water for residents of five communes in Santuk.

The villagers, he added, understood that they had no right to plant rice on state land but had been incited to protest for compensation by the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

“We have prohibited them from planting crops there, so when their crops are flooded over, we are not responsible,” he said. “We have prohibited them again and again – they know already.”

Men Sothavarin, an SRP lawmaker from Kampong Thom, denied that the SRP had incited the protest.

SRP MP Men Sothavarin listen to Santouk villagers protest against the dismantling of KR era dam

May 10, 2010: MP Men Sothavarin, SRP provincial chief for Kampong Thom, and Mr. Sun Chanthy, provincial working group with more than 500 villagers from 4 communes in Santouk district, Kampong Thom province gather to protest the dismantling of a Khmer Rouge-era dam. The villagers complain that their lands were confiscated without any compensation from the government.

Ponchaud: 17 April 1975 was a bitter day for Cambodians

Father François Ponchaud, catholic missionary in Phnom Penh (Photo: RFI)

17 April 2010
By Jean-François Tain
Radio France Internationale
Translated from French by Komping Puoy

Jean-François Tain’s weekly guest this Saturday is Father François Ponchaud, a catholic missionary. Father Ponchaud was in Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975 and he personally witnessed the arrival of the KR to Phnom Penh 35 years ago.

Quote from Father Ponchaud: "Currently, Cambodia is developing very quickly, but the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, there are land evictions and land confiscations from (the workers,) the farmers, there are land concessions given out to foreigners. The government must remember that the Khmer Rouge came about when the government of Samdech Sihanouk confiscated lands in Kampong Kol, Samlot [Battambang province], and the people revolted during that time. Then the Khmer Rouge took over the people’s demonstration to form its movement and started their first insurrection. Right now, the situation is the same, because the government confiscates lands belonging to farmers, demonstrations are starting to take shape, like the ones in Kampong Speu, in Oral Mountain, in Banteay Meanchey. Therefore, I am concerned about the future. I’m afraid that because of intense injustice, the people will start their insurrection and this will create havoc in Cambodia. Injustice breeds war. This is a normal outcome: it’s the law of politics."

Click here to listen to the interview in Khmer (MP3)

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Apxara Auxority

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Concerns over Confiscation of H.E. Son Chhay’s Land

Cambodian Center for Human Rigths

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release – Phnom Penh, 6 April 2010

Concerns over Confiscation of H.E. Son Chhay’s Land

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) condemns the expropriation of land belonging to Sam Rainsy Party (“SRP”) parliamentarian H.E. Son Chhay. The expropriation by the Apsara Authority of the three hectare parcel of land in Siem Reap, close to the Kyungyu tourist, site is of dubious legality and amounts to an act of intimidation of the opposition parliamentarian.

The CCHR is concerned by the legality of the expropriation for two reasons. Firstly, the use of the land by the Sokimex Group for a hotel development serves no clear public interest as required by Article 5 of the Land Law and Articles 2 and 4 of the Expropriation Law. In defence of the confiscation, Bun Narith, the general director of the Apsara Authority, is quoted in the Phnom Penh Post on 29 March 2010 to the effect that the land in question is state land that “is not bought or sold”. According to the same article however, the Apsara Authority has announced that it will confiscate and sell the land to the Sokimex Group. Secondly, the nominal compensation being provided to Son Chhay for his land of US$0.50 per square meter is not “fair or just” and has not been paid in advance as Article 5 of the Land Law and Articles 2 and 4 of the Expropriation Law require. This compensation falls dramatically short of the Apsara Authority’s own valuation of the land, which H.E. Son Chhay says will be sold to the Sokimex Group for US$80 per square meter.

Another disturbing feature of the land expropriation is the implicit intimidation of a SRP member through the courts of Cambodia. This is the latest in the series of incidents in which members of the SRP have been the victims of a judicial system subordinated to the Royal Government of Cambodia.

For more information please contact:
Ou Virak, President, CCHR
Tel: +855 12 40 40 51
Email: ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

Authorities confiscate SRP MP Son Chhay’s land

SRP MP Son Chhay

Military police cordoned off the area to protect the officials who came to confiscate SRP MP Son Chay’s land in Siem Reap city on 01 April 2010 (Photo: Hang Savyouth, RFA)

01 April 2010
By Hang Savyouth Radio Free Asia Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy Click here to read the article in Khmer

The joint authority forces came to confiscate the 3-hectare land belonging to SRP MP Son Chhay in Siem Reap province, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

On Thursday morning, a joint authority force, including military cops, regular cops and more than 100 demolition workers, came to put into application the order issued by the Supreme Court. They dismantled 3 huts belonging to people guarding the land and they also confiscated a 3-hectare plot located inside the Apsara authority zone, located in Slor Kram commune, Siem Reap city. The land belongs to SRP MP Son Chhay.

Mr. Son Chhay, who was not present at the incident location, said on Thursday afternoon that he opposes the court decision to confiscate his land. He claimed that this confiscation is not done to serve the public interest, but to lease the land to a private company to build a hotel instead. He also indicated that there is no law that allows the authority to confiscate people’s land to lease to private business interests.

Son Chhay said: “This is a robbery through the use of the court system. They confiscate the land in violation of the land law, they used armed forces [for the confiscation]. This is a savage act that is contrary to the stipulations of the law. This is not affecting just me, but even people who own small plots of land fall victim to so many of such cases.”

Sok Keo Bandit, the deputy prosecutor of the Siem Reap provincial court, said that the 3-hectare plot of land belonging to Son Chhay was confiscated and considered as public property owned by the state and it will be handed over the Apsara authority to manage.

Sok Keo Bandit claimed: “The application of the sentence this morning is based on the Supreme Court’s order. The latter decided to [revoke] H.E. Son Chhay’s occupation rights and turn it into a state public property, i.e., it will be placed under the management of the Apsara authority.”

Pal Chandara, the government lawyer involved in this case, refused to comment on the court decision, however, he claimed that he found out the Mr. Son Chhay does not have sufficient documents to claim the ownership of this land.

Pal Chandara said: “Whether it’s right or wrong, it all depends on the Supreme Court’s decisions. However, to me, H.E. Son Chhay does not have any document. In the past, H.E. Son Chhay told a number of radio stations and news media, that he has the private right or an ownership title, or that his [ownership] was recognized by the ministry of Finance, the Apsara authority, of the commune or district chiefs. This, he is lying, he does not have them, he only has a letter asking to occupy the land.”

Son Chhay said that he purchased the 3-hectare land in 1995, but that now there is a dispute with the Apsara authority. In the past, government officials used to offer to pay him $0.50 per square-meter, including the price of trees, i.e., he could have received $19,000, but he refused to accept the offer.

Son Chhay said that he does not accept the Supreme Court’s decision, and that he is consulting with national and international lawyers to find a way to continue his protest.

SRP lawmaker’s land in Siem Reap seized

SRP MP Son Chhay

Monday, 29 March 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Apsara Authority announced Thursday that it will confiscate and sell more than 3 hectares of land in Siem Reap province owned by Son Chhay, a lawmaker for the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to tycoon Sok Kong at the start of next month.

Son Chhay said Sunday that the courts, under pressure from Apsara’s chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, delivered a decision to confiscate more than 3 hectares of land he says he purchased in 1995. The land, which is being taken under a sub-decree to preserve “state land”, has been sold to Sok Kong’s Sokimex Group for a hotel development, he said.

“It is absolutely contrary to the law. Taking this land is for a hotel, not for public interests. If it was being used to build schools or roads, I have no problem giving it up. ... I would give it up without taking even one riel,” he said.

“But they are taking the land to build a hotel on. I cannot accept the ruling because it is contrary to the principle of the Land Law.”

Bun Narith, Apsara’s director general, dismissed Son Chhay’s statements, saying that the land in question is in an Apsara conservation area, and that the sub-decree dictates that this land is meant for tourism development.

“This is a false accusation. That land has a sub-decree stating that it was put under the Apsara Authority for tourism development, making it state land. State land is not bought or sold,” he said.

Sok Keo Bandith, deputy prosecutor of Siem Reap provincial court, said he does not know what the seized land will be used for, and that he issued the verdict to confiscate the land as ordered by the Supreme Court.

“I just enforced the Supreme Court’s ruling. They decided to put that land under the Apsara Authority,” said Sok Keo Bandith.

Sokha Hotels, a subsidiary of Sok Kong’s Sokimex Group, is developing a 23-hectare hotel and tourism area in Siem Reap province.

Son Chhay's lands face confiscation

SRP MP Son Chhay

Sunday, 28 March 2010
By Khmerization
Source: RFA

Prime real estate lands near Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap belonging to Mr. Son Chhay (pictured), MP from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), could be confiscated by the Apsara Authority, the body managing the conservation of Angkor areas, as early as 1st April, reports Radio Free Asia.

Mr. Son Chhay told RFA on Saturday afternoon , 27th March, that he had received information that the High Court will send him a letter to inform him that it will order the confiscation of his lands on 1st April. "I heard that it (High Court) will send a letter to me about the confiscation of my lands on the 1st of April. They will not take my lands for free, they will pay me 50 cents per square metre and I heard that they will sell those lands to Oknha Sok Kong for $80 per square metre since 2006, since before the court reached its verdict. These actions are illegal actions and I am very concerned because I owned these lands since 1995. I have planted vegetable, many mango trees, banana trees and jackfruit trees on those lands and there are few poor families living on the lands whom I help to feed", he told RFA.

Mr. Son Chhay said his 3-hectare lands are located very close Kyungyu tourist site in Siem Reap where he had bought since 1995. Later, the Apsara Authority under the control of Deputy PM Sok An, said that the lands are located within the Apsara Conservation Area and that they must be confiscated. He said he had fought with the authority and the court for many years and now he is appealing to all foreign embassies to help monitor his case.

Demands a halt to forced evictions and land confiscation

Land grabbed by the 7NG Company
Village 78 Phnom Penh

The issue of forced evictions, displacement, and landlessness among Cambodia’s rural and urban poor is reaching crisis proportions.

12.08.2009
Norwegian People Aid

Evictions and land confiscation continue in Cambodia. This is despite that The World Bank, ADB, UN and Cambodia’s donors have called for for the government to enact a moratorium on forced evictions and land confiscation until it establishes effective conflict resolution mechanisms and relocation procedures meeting international standards

On August 11th, community representatives from 19 different provinces gathered in Phnom Penh to submit community complaint petitions to government offices. Complaints from approximately 30 cases have a total of over 15,000 thumbprints. The complaints cover an area of at least 200,000 hectares of land.

These community complaints will be filed directly by affected communities. They demonstrate a rising awareness among Cambodians about their rights under Cambodian and international law. The complaints also reflect a rising level of frustration with attempts to solve land disputes and evictions at the local level. The complaints come from 19 different provinces but have a similar theme: marginalized communities are being driven into poverty by forced evictions, economic land concessions, mining concessions and unlawful land grabs. Communities’ efforts to seek peaceful solutions are met with intimidation, coercion, court action - and sometimes violence.

On Wednesday 12th. community representatives from across Cambodia will conduct a forum for donors, NGOs and media to explain why they are lodging complaints to the national government.

Press statement from community representatives:

“When we try to protect our legal rights we receive intimidation. We want the government and the donors to know what is happening. We are losing our land, forest and fisheries we depend on. We are getting poorer and poorer and the rich are getting richer.”

“We are told we have rights. It does not feel like that. When we try to protect the rights and our land, we are abused and intimidated by the courts” - Mr. Pol Cheoun, Kors Kralor

“We know it is dangerous to do these complaints all together, but what choice do we have?” - Ms. Doung Kheang, Beoug Took commune, Teuk Chew District, Kampot

We are community representatives including indigenous peoples from 19 provinces and cities in Cambodia. We would like to make a common statement in order to inform the Royal Government of Cambodia, local community, donors and international community about the situation of development in Cambodia, especially through economic land concessions, land grabbing and destruction of natural resources by some rich and powerful who have affected the livelihoods of local people.

We are very happy and welcome government development projects. But those development projects must not badly affect to our lives and livelihoods. We do not accept developments that benefits only to the private companies and some powerful people. Our communities are losing our land and natural resources. These are the things that we depend on for generations.

Donors and the international community grant hundreds of millions dollars every year to help develop Cambodia especially in order to alleviate the poverty of the Cambodian people. They say they provide money to build democracy, reduce poverty, protect natural resources, promote health and well-being and education services etc. However, we, the community people, observe that the poor Cambodians’ are getting poorer and poorer and the rich are getting richer and richer.

Community people are wondering how development aid has been used? In addition, much land has been granted to private companies for concessions. Also some lands are abused and taken directly by some powerful people. This is affecting our livelihoods by taking our farms land the forest that we depend on for our livelihoods.

In Preah Phos Commune, Kors Kralor District, Battambang Province, community farming land was confiscated by a powerful person (who is a military officer) and they are not allowed to cultivate their rice fields. When people try to farm their land, they are accused of abusing personal possession and robbery. Up to date, 37 Kors Kralor people were called for questioning multiple times by the court (including … one person who was deceased at the time of the incidents), one is still in on bail, restricted to the province.

The people in Kors Kralor are living in fear; even in the rainy season, they cannot farm their land. There are food shortages. People take loans and cannot payback. Food shortage lead to sickness and people cannot pay for medical treatment. Some migrate to work outside, so children cannot access school. Some community people become manual workers in the forest. Difficult circumstances lead to serious sickness and people do not have the money for proper treatment.

In Andong Meas District of Ratanakiri Province the issue is Economic Land Concessions. In this case a Korean company was given the lands and forests of indigenous peoples. Legal advice was that the concession was not issued in line with Cambodian Law and indigenous peoples rights.

“It was our land. It always was. Then the government gave it to a company. It is destroying our lives. They didn’t tell us. The first we knew of the concession was when the Sesan River stopped flowing and machines came across to our village. We complained nationally two times already. They are still clearing our land” - Mr. Sol Seuy, indigenous Kachok, Andong Meas, Ratanakiri

In Rovieng District, Preah Vihear, the issue is mining concessions. There was a a large mining concession given to a company. The company has started making roads, clearing and started exploration. Communities were not consulted.

“Our problem is this mining company. They say to mine, to build roads and come to intimidate us” - Mr. Som Chain, Rovieng

These issues are not just happening in Kors Kralor, Andong Meas and Rovieng They are happening throughout the country. Every province and town/city has these problems. This is why we are raising joint complaints to the government. We keep raising the problems and they are ignored. Is this the sort of development the government and donors support?

We want the problems solved. We would like to demand to the government to address this problem.

As a start we demand:

• The Government halt to new concessions
• The Government halt and cancel to operations of all old concessions or development projects that negatively affect the livelihoods of communities.
• An immediate stop to intimidation and court actions against people attempting to protect their land and natural resources, and the release from jail of those imprisoned relating to protecting land and natural resources;
• A meeting between 50 community representatives from complaint area and the Prime Minister facilitated by the UN, with Human Rights organizations and donors participating to raise and solve the issue.

We also request to the donors, Cambodian people and international community to strictly monitor the development aid. Make sure it is contributing to the poverty reduction in Cambodia. Also work so that the government follows its promises.

Cambodians draw for land [-Stealing from Puthea to give to Phal?]

Many Cambodians lack land of their own. Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith

A Cambodian scheme to redistribute land to the poor is drawing criticism from expropriated farmers, writes Francis Deron in Le Monde

Wednesday March 11th 2009
Francis Deron
Le Monde (France)

"Whereas the vast majority of farmers had their own plot of land 20 years ago, nowadays about one-fifth of the rural population is totally destitute, owning nothing whatsoever" - World Bank official

Day breaks in a village in Kompong Cham province, Cambodia, east of Phnom Penh. The paddy fields are deserted. Women are busy with the washing, but everyone is watching the family heads who have gathered around a map of the village and its surroundings showing the plots of land in the draw.

An official with a megaphone takes a chit from a box and reads out a number. The men, sitting cross-legged on the ground, look anxiously at the number they have been allocated, though they must surely know it by heart. Finally the official announces the name of the winner.

This strange procedure is part of the Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development (Lased) programme. With help from the World Bank and the German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Cambodian government is giving eligible families land that cannot be transferred for at least five years. It is up to beneficiaries to build a home on the plot and make a livelihood there. Initially, some 8,000 families will be involved.

Of course that is a very small number compared with the masses of Cambodia’s landless peasants, estimated at half a million by the World Bank – but it is a start.

There is nothing new about the problem of land ownership for peasant farmers but it has become an explosive issue in Cambodia. In the 1960s the nascent Khmer Rouge movement played on land shortages to drum up support for the Communist insurrection that helped overthrow the regime of the former king, Norodom Sihanouk. Publicising the current scheme sends the message that the government is looking out for the landless.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the disappearance of officials and public records, confusion surrounded the redistribution of land as private property. To complicate matters further, tens of thousands of people were gradually returning from refugee camps. Much of the land was seized by those with power or influence. Estimates suggest that less than 1% of the population took control of 20% to 30% of the land in that first wave of privatisation, which started in 1991.

"Whereas the vast majority of farmers had their own plot of land 20 years ago, nowadays about one-fifth of the rural population is totally destitute, owning nothing whatsoever," says a World Bank official.

Many of these people had to sell their land, often illegally, to pay for the high cost of medical treatment when family members were injured by landmines in the fields. Until recently in Cambodia, explosive devices left over from 30 years of insurrection and war were still maiming or killing people, at a rate of about 1,000 victims a year. Some families might have lost their only buffalo, depriving them of the means to farm their land. They would have had no option but to sell and find work as seasonal farm labourers.

Only families with per capita earnings of less than 50 (US) cents a day qualify for the Lased programme. Launched in 2003 it concerns publicly owned land that local authorities are required to give up as "social land concessions".

However, the scheme has been unevenly deployed. Nine out of 20 provinces have complied, five others are still hesitating and Prey Veng, a densely populated province bordering on Vietnam, has announced it has no available land.

Rapid population growth has not helped, more than doubling numbers in some districts that were already hard pressed to feed everyone 20 years ago. Many plots lie fallow too, but demand far outstrips the political determination to exploit such land.

Protest movements by expropriated farmers, backed by Cambodian and foreign human rights organisations, are increasingly common. They have recently started taking their complaints to court. They have not had much success so far, but the rising number of cases prompted the prime minister, Hun Sen, to threaten to disband the authority in charge of settling land disputes on account of its inadequate results.

Lake Area Evictees Protest at City Hall [-Lao Meng Khin's Shukaku pay residents about 10% of actual land price]

By Seng Ratana, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 September 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

More than 100 people from the Boeung Kak lake area of Phnom Penh protested in front of Phnom Penh City Hall Monday, claiming development of the area was continuing before they had been properly compensated for living.

The residents said the Shukaku, Inc., development company had already begun filling the lake, starting from April.

Protester Huon Sopha, 42, said if the company continues to fill the lake, its rising water level will cause her house to collapse. Shukaku must stop filling the lake, she said, as most people living around it disagreed with a municipal moving policy.

Only about 400 of a total 4,000 families around the lake have accepted a company buyout of $8,000 per family to leave.

Thon Yon, a 60-year-old lake resident, said Monday she would not accept $8,000. Her house should be compensated according to current real estate prices, between $60,000 and $70,000, she said.

Shukaku was not taking into account the current prices or the size of each house, she said.

In April 2007, Phnom Penh signed an agreement with Shukaku to develop 43 hectares of land around the lake, in a 99-year lease worth $79 million.

In April 2008, Shukaku began filling the 90-hectare lake, and residents said earlier this year they feared they would be moved off their land after July's election.

Critics have also said the city's drainage will be affected by the filling of the lake, and people who depend on the lake's water lilies for their livelihood will be affected. Both Amnesty International and the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions have urged the project be stopped to ensure the rights of the residents, calling the project "in breach of both Cambodian and international law."

Soun Rindy, Phnom Penh Municipality chief of cabinet, said Monday the request of the protesters was under consideration.

Shukaku representatives could not be reached for comment.

Pen Raingsey, who works for the non-government group Resettlement Action Network, said Monday the city and the developer should not give only one choice to the lake residents, many of whom are legal residents and should get proper compensation for their eviction.

A representative of the lake residents, Ros Polrith, said city officials had not provided an immediate resolution but had promised to respond next week.